Today we’d like to introduce you to Jeanine Amapola.
Thanks for sharing your story with us Jeanine. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
In 2010, I was prepping for my high school homecoming. Being 16 at the time, I hardly knew anything about makeup — so I started searching the World Wide Web for “homecoming makeup tutorials” and I came across this magical world of beauty tutorials! I started watching all these girls teach makeup and hair tricks and I became instantly HOOKED. After consuming hours and weeks and months of videos, I decided I wanted to embark on my own journey with YouTube. I grabbed my tiny, blue, dented Canon Powershot camera and created my first video with my sister titled “Getting My Braces off” and the video blew up! The video got over 100k views. I was shocked! That was a lot of views for how new YouTube was and for that being my first ever video!
From there, I realized how fun it was to create videos. It became my creative outlet! I was addicted! I started uploading cheerleading videos, singing videos, faith videos, my own makeup tutorials, collabs with other YouTubers, hair tips, and so much more. It was my absolute passion.
In 2013, I left my home in Dallas to attend the University of Texas at Austin! Hook ‘em! Around this time, I had just about 200k subscribers. I was struggling with my channel a bit because I was struggling to balance everything that college entailed – cheerleading, classes, homework, social events, a sorority, friends, family, and so much more. So I was contemplating giving up my channel, but I was encouraged by a friend, MyLifeAsEva, to keep going! Because of her, I decided to give YouTube another shot! I flew out to California for my first time ever in 2013 and did a video collaboration with her and Alisha Marie, and my channel grew from 200k to 1 Million in less than a year. It was wild!
After that, I decided to make YouTube my full-time job. I gave up being in a sorority so I could focus on it even more since I loved it so much. Next thing I knew, I was flying all over the U.S. to shoot for magazines, commercials, events, speaking engagements, and more. Ever since graduating from UT, it has been my full-time job. I am beyond grateful for this job! I absolutely love what I do and the connection I’ve built with my followers. I now have over 2.6 million followers across all my platforms and I talk about everything within Dating, Faith, Fitness, Health, Beauty, Travel, & more! It’s been a wild journey, and I thank God for it everyday.
Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
I’d be lying if I said this journey was easy. There we several times I thought I wanted to quit because I couldn’t handle the hate comments, or the pressure of always having to create the most perfect video at the most perfect time, or the struggle of always comparing myself to other women in the same industry – along with many other unseen pressures within this field.
I also went through an extremely difficult break up that went public and it totally made me want to hide in a shell and never come out again. I couldn’t handle the pressure of all the opinions. I was only 22 and didn’t know how to handle it with a fragile heart and self-esteem at the time.
However, looking back, all of it made me stronger. I learned from it all. I have grown so much. I am able to handle hate comments with thicker skin and with grace now, and I focus on what I’m doing now and not what others are. I embrace my own journey and my own skills/traits and run with it. Because in the end, there’s only one me. I bring my own unique ideas and perspectives that no one else can with my personal story. I try to own it and always share something to help out someone else out there that might be dealing with something similar!
We’d love to hear more about your work and what you are currently focused on. What else should we know?
I honestly don’t look at myself as a business, even though I have a whole amazing team behind me, but more as just your everyday girl! People tend to know me for my faith-based videos and authentic personality. I always try to be real, honest, authentic and provide some sort of help for people. I always try to provide value within Christianity, dating, personal growth, beauty, fashion, skincare, fitness, & health.
I’m most proud of the amazing brands I’ve worked with and the opportunities I have gotten. I have worked with brands such as Apple, American Airlines, Fabletics, Starbucks, CMT, Teen Vogue, ABC Family, Verizon, StateFarm, Seventeen Magazine, MTV, Adobe, & many more!
I think what sets me apart is, I’m not willing to sacrifice my authenticity for approval. That goes with the brands I work with, the things I say/do, the videos I make, the posts I create, and the money I make. I always want to stay true to not only myself during this process, but my followers too. This isn’t a “get rich quick” scheme for me. I genuinely love people and want to see them thrive and just be happy and healthy in all aspects of life. If I can help with that in any way, then I feel extremely fulfilled!
What is “success” or “successful” for you?
I define success by 1. feeling fulfilled by my job. 2. seeing other’s lives be changed,
If I’m not growing and helping people along the way, it’s not worth it to me. I want to always be evolving and helping others too. There’s a saying that goes, “Choose a Job You Love, and You Will Never Have To Work a Day in Your Life” – and this is exactly how I feel. I try not to focus on the money or the followers, but more of how fulfilled it makes me feel. Obviously. I do have to sometimes pay attention to the numbers and analytics, but I ultimately want to make sure I’m serving people and giving them what they wanna see.
I think the positive feedback is always super encouraging to me! When I see the DM’s from girls and the comments thanking me for what I do and how it helps them, it truly brightens my day! It helps me so much not give up. It reminds me of why I do what I do. To me, that is success. Loving what you’re doing and helping others along the way!
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCrcYxVSkBgg9szDSwwZaNwg?view_as=subscriber
- Email: [email protected]
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jeanineamapola/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/JeanineAmapolaYouTuber/?ref=bookmarks
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/JeanineAmapola
Image Credit:
Year Of the Bible Pic – @whereslugo
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